Loft conversion – any advice from people who’ve done one? What would you do differently?

JadeHighland

I live in Havering (London) and looking to get a loft extension done for a 2 bedroom mid-terraced house. It will be the biggest project I've ever done so just looking for as much advice and feedback as possible. Would also be great if anyone can recommend anyone in the area. 

Below is the first floor plan and the red line shows part of the bedroom that will be lost to the conversion. Somewhat of an issue losing the closet space but can somewhat make that up elsewhere in the room. 

dinosaur66

i would look on rightmove at all the similar propertys near your postcode and see what they can do with the space / your borough is crammed full of houses that have had loft conversions / i am guessing will have to be a full dormer in your area right out to eaves / costs have trebled since i had one done in 2005 -essex /

havering very high priced property area so the added bedroom increase in value will easily cover the costs

i do not know a builder in your area but i do see so many sign written vans advertising loft conversions

from memory i used checkatrade got 3 quotes but ended up using a local builder firm recommended by a neighbour who showed me what they had done a few years before

compromise on your storage looks well worth it for the staircase to go in

timeframe ,mine took 12 weeks

they also took all the debris away with them every day so no skips which i appreciated

is it a pain for the 12 weeks yes / but well worth it

knightstyle

Your plans don't show the roof pitch, check headroon over the stairs and allow extra for tall people the go into the space without banging their heads!

Albermarle

In a smaller property, you have to be careful that you do not end up with a disappointingly small loft room, with not much space where you can actually stand up. Depending on the current roof shape and condition, it may need to be modified/rebuilt, which will add significant cost, and loft conversions are expensive anyway.

If any neighbours with similar houses have had the loft converted, see if you can go and have a look.

JadeHighland

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911558#Comment_81911558

Neighbour across the road does and it felt okay being inside. Roof height will be 220cm. I'm 193 tall.

27.5m2 is the total floor space in the loft.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911764#Comment_81911764

Maybe I have made the wrong assumption that because it is a two bedroom house, that the size of the house is larger than I imagined.

I have a little bit larger than average semi and it has a gable ended roof ( which is better for loft conversions), as will your terrace. We had a loft conversion done some years ago, with a half width dormer at the back. The total floor area is about 25 m2 and you can stand up in about 20M2 of that. It feels quite spacious.

I presume that 27M2 is the current size of the loft, not what it will be after the conversion?

JadeHighland

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81911830#Comment_81911830

Yeah, sorry wasn't clear. That's the total floor area as it is now.

rach_k

Expect to spend a lot… and then to spend extra on top of that! Even with the best builder, unexpected issues can occur so you need a decent pot of extra money just in case.

Do you have any other tradespeople you've used and trust? Our plumber recommended the builder we used, then we asked the builder to bring him in for the bathroom. I've found that good tradespeople are keen to maintain their own reputation and they see a lot of work by other people, so they're a great source of recommendations.

I think it's worth taking time and spending money to make the extra room(s) feel as nice as the rest of your house, unless you just need the cheapest extra bedroom possible. I think it's sad when you go into an extension or loft extension a few years after it was done and it still doesn't feel like a proper part of the home. So think about your doors, windows, flooring, lighting, connectivity. Try to avoid any pokey little corners. If you put in a shower room, make sure it's really nice (and do, if you can - traipsing downstairs for night time wees isn't fun).

One thing I wish we'd done was think about air conditioning. While the attic is really well insulated (it usually stays around 1 degree C warmer than the rest of the house), the summers are getting warmer so I regret not thinking about that when we were already having work done. Even just planning for where we could add it on in future would've been worthwhile.

For us, the process was actually really good, although we didn't take space from a bedroom. The builders opened up the roof and came and went via the scaffolding for as long as they could so we barely saw them at first. They only broke through to the rest of the house when they absolutely had to. It was one afternoon of horrible mess (attic gunk is nasty!) but they cleaned up straight away. After that, it was just like any other work being done in the house - water or electrics off for an hour here and there, plastering of the stairs, plenty of dust, but nothing horrendous.

Chickereeeee

REALLY think about insulation and ventilation. So many lofts are too cold or too hot. Current regs help with the former, less so with the latter.

Mahsroh

If i'm not too late (I notice the post is a month old)…. It's a small thing but if you have access into the eaves for storage then put two doors (one at either end) or at least make sure it's accessible throughout. Our loft conversion was done by previous owners with only one access door/hatch at the far end. It's too tight for an adult to get into the space meaning half of the eaves storage at the far end is inaccessible so is a waste of what would otherwise be useful space (we'll get an extra door cut in at some point but haven't done it yet).